eRacks Introduces Flash-Based Large Volume SSD Storage Servers

eRacks Open Source Systems announced its series of faster, lighter weight, flash-based rackmount storage servers, based on SSD technology.

The FLASH10 is the first of of many servers in this line of large-capacity, cloud-ready, flash-based storage servers to be offered by the firm, the Open Source systems pioneer.

The FLASH10 server offers durability and reliability to data centers implementing the high-speed SSD storage technology. The 10-bay unit holds 10 hotswap 2.5″ SSDs (replacing traditional rotating platter-based HDD drives) and adds extra value to company’ line of Open Source petascale-class storage server solutions.

FLASH10 storage servers reduce power requirements compared to data centers utilizing traditional disk drives. These SSDs have no moving or mechanical components, as opposed to traditional drives, which require moving actuator arms and motors. The servers thus use less power.

The SSDs in FLASH10 servers are more reliable than their platter-based disk drive counterparts, as there are no moving parts. The device will not wear out over time, nor be susceptible to damage due to physical trauma or accident. These SSDs are much more resilient in unexpected and unfavorable environments, adding security assurance for the data stored on them.

The SSDs themselves are available up to 2TB, for a total capacity of 20TB (4TB drives for 40TB total storage are available by custom quote), and are available in 6Gb SATA as well as higher speeds such as 12Gb SAS and NVMe (up to ~24Gb/s).

Features and basic specifications/capabilities:

• Intel, Samsung, SanDisk SSDs available, up to 10-year warranty

• NVMe, SATA6, or SAS12 SSDs supported, up to 2TB

• Larger drives such as 4TB available by custom quote

• Capacities up to 20TB raw storage (40TB total raw storage by custom quote)

• Up to 1.5TB of DDR4 ECC RAM

• Up to 4xGbE or 10GbE ports

• Dedicated IPMI port

• Redundant power supply

This SSD technology can provide a much higher data retrieval speed, typically being at least 2x-3x faster, and often up to 10x faster in best-case scenarios.

The improvement in performance is due to (a) SSDs’ unique technology allowing for zero-latency (due to not having to wait for the platters to rotate to the spot where the data is), and (b) due to new bus and data-transfer technologies such as PCIe/NVMe (up to 24Gb/s), and 12Gb SAS which are quadruple and double the data-transfer rate of 6b SATA, respectively.

Even so, the fast data retrieval speed does not generate more heat nor consume more power – In fact the new flash drives consume about one-third of the amount of energy of traditional HDDs, and run 30-40% cooler.

Additionally, FLASH10 storage servers create much less noise due to incorporation of the silent SSD drives.

As always, company’ 10-bay hot-swap removable storage unit comes preinstalled and preconfigured with customers’ choice of Open Source OS and cloud storage software, including customers’ choice of Linux or BSD, Ceph, OpenStack, CloudStack, OpenNebula, Docker, Eucalyptus, Samba/CIFs, and any other open source software requested by the customer.

The combination of power that comes with Open Source technology along with green characteristics of the SSD flash drives, makes this product an advanced, environment-friendly and cost-effective solution from SMBs to the enterprise.